About the Book

After losing her job as an investigative reporter for The Phoenix Gazette, Kat Lawson has a new gig. The FBI has asked her to work undercover as a reporter for Journey International to cover Munich, Germany's festive holiday scene-an excuse to get close to Hans von Hausmann, a very charismatic and popular museum curator suspected of hiding a cache of stolen masterpieces believed to be part of the World's Largest Art Heist. The job comes with lots of perks: airfare, travel expenses, the opportunity to see the world...and for a seasoned reporter like Kat, nothing she can't handle. But, when a trusted source is found dead, Kat realizes the tables have been turned. Armed with evidence that will expose a cache of artwork stolen from museums and the homes of wealthy Jews during the 2nd World War, Kat must find a way to avoid being caught by the German Polizie, who have enough evidence to charge her with murder, and those who want her dead to keep their hidden treasures forever secret. The hunter has become the hunted; now, Kat has a target on her back.

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Excerpt

CHAPTER 1
December 1999
Munich, Germany

As a journalist, I know better than to insert myself into the center of a news story. Especially when reporting on a murder. Getting into the middle of an investigation could have serious consequences. I could end up dead. That’s what I kept telling myself as I hid from my would-be assassin as he searched for my whereabouts on the icy Alpine slopes south of Munich. I had taken a chance and now had nobody to blame except myself. Let me start at the beginning of my story, where, hopefully, I can explain why I had a target on my back, and what I needed to do about it. My name is Kat Lawson, and up until a year ago, I had worked as an investigative reporter for the Phoenix Gazette, which had dismissed me because of an inappropriate workplace relationship with my boss. Him, they kept—me, they fired. Which might explain how I found myself working for Journey International, a travel publication and a front for the FBI. An excuse for the bureau to send select journalists undercover to retrieve information and pass it along.

My assignment was simple enough. I was to go to Munich, Germany, to meet with Hans von Hausmann and his sister, Erika Schönburg, celebrity curators for The Gerhardt Galerie, a new museum featuring a mixture of old-world masters and modern art. The Galerie was preparing for a show featuring Fruits on the Table with a Small Dog by Paul Gauguin, a French postimpressionist. According to my FBI handler, Sophie Brill, an art historian and holocaust survivor, the painting had been stolen in 1970 from a private gallery in London and recently bought by an American collector who, upon hearing about the unveiling, feared he had been duped.

The painting had an estimated value of between 10 and 30 million Euros. One of several the collector had bought over the years from Viktor Sokolov, a Russian art dealer specializing in finding rare works of art. But, when the collector heard about the unveiling of the same painting in Germany, he immediately contacted Sokolov and told him of his concern. Sokolov assured his American collector that he had nothing to worry about. Yes, the Gauguin had once been stolen but later found and returned to its original owner in London. However, the owner, happy to have Fruits on the Table back on his walls, now wanted to sell it so that he might expand his collection and asked Sokolov if he could find a buyer. Which the Russian was happy to do.

As for the Gauguin about to be unveiled in Munich, Sokolov assured his client the museum had no doubt purchased a fake and was probably none the wiser—and if they were—they weren’t about to say anything. Whether the Gerhardt Galerie was involved in shady dealings, the FBI had no proof and, along with Interpol, had agreed to investigate any possible connections Hans or his sister Erika might have a link to organized crime. My job was to go to Munich, attend the unveiling, introduce myself to Hans and Erika as a reporter working for Journey International, and snoop around. Since I had no connections to the art world and was a new face for the Germans, everyone agreed I was a good fit for the assignment.

What I wasn’t supposed to do, at least as far as the Germans were concerned, was to physically interfere with Interpol’s investigation of Viktor Sokolov, of which I had no problem—thugs are not my thing. And secondly, and even more important, I was not to publicly expose what the FBI and those in the art world suspected was Gerhardt’s Hoard, a hidden cache of masterpieces lost during the 2nd World War that Hans and his sister were suspected of hiding and using them to finance their wealthy lifestyle. If that sounded odd, Sophie suggested I consider Gerhardt’s Hoard from the German’s point of view. The war had ended better than fifty years ago, and any rumblings, much less proof of Gerhardt’s Hoard today would be an uncomfortable reminder of the German atrocities—a situation the Germans were anxious to avoid.

About the Author

After twenty-five years in news and talk radio, Nancy Cole Silverman retired to write fiction. Her Carol Childs Mysteries features a single mom whose day job as a reporter at an LA radio station often leads to long nights solving crimes. Her Misty Dawn series is centered on an aging Hollywood Psychic to the Stars, who supplements her day-to-day activities as a consultant to the LAPD. Silverman’s newest series, The Kat Lawson Mysteries, is centered on a disgraced investigative reporter who finds herself working for an international travel publication as an undercover agent for the FBI.

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